I reviewed a summary of drownings that have resulted when people left their boats and entered the water. A high number of times the individual was wearing a PFD and when rescuers tried to help the person out of the water the individuals slipped out of the PFD and drowned, usually no body was recovered. In Northern California and the SF Bay the water is cold enough that a person without a PFD is not going to last long at all. A Express skipper whose boat broached and sank in seconds in front of the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco disappeared immediately from sight and his body was never recovered.

Oddly enough very few PFD's come with even a crotch strap much less leg straps or even a way to attach them later. With Mustang only their inflatable suspender models have the straps. With other otherwise excellent PFD manufacturers only their search and rescue models have the leg straps and all their other "offshore" PFD's lack any way to keep them on the wearer.

Oddly enough very few PFD's come with even a crotch strap much less leg straps or even a way to attach them later.

You can submit your crotch-strangler proposal to an "Innovations in Life Jacket Design" contest: http://www.boatus.org/design/guidelines.asp for a cash reward. The trick might be how to make the extra strap intuitively obvious for folks in a panic, who might connect that to the waist buckle instead for instance. The anchor point in the rear might have to be very high and introduce more confusion about routing.

I would simply suggest they lengthen all waist straps to handle folks more rotund than their targeted weight class. I've seen a Panamanian shuttle boat on reality TV a few times with all their passengers wearing cheapo blocky class2 pfds a size too small for them, All of them would be in trouble in case of a dunking, because either they don't attach the too short waiststrap or else they make do with a bad situation by wearing the pfd inside out. In that way the waist strap can connect due to only needing to wrap the person and not the vest, but then the floatation panels are only held on by a few stitches in tension.

I personally believe that crotch straps should be compulsory, so the PFD no longer requires tightness at the waist.

Some very good points raised here. Most kid-sized PFDs have crotch-straps (not sure if it's a design requirement in Australia?) and they're very effective even when the waist-straps aren't tightened fully. They certainly prevent my kids sliding out. They don't even have to be uncomfortably tight to work properly.

It might even be worth looking into adding some webbing and clips to an adult-sized PFD as an experiment.

Not new news... that is from last September. Nothing has yet changed. The update that is likely most important at the time is:

Quote:

Our friends in the life jacket manufacturing community further advise that 2017 is likely the earliest they could potentially see any new life jacket standards on production lines.

For us, we hope the US goes to a international standard. We currently have to have different labeled (tested and approved) vests... even if the same product... for US, Canada, EU and Australia. We brought in some ULC (Canada)_ vests a few years ago and still have them. Hobie Europe does their own as does Australia.

And just to throw a cat amongst the pigeons, I personally would like to see ALL PFDs fitted with mandatory crotch straps.

I have seen too many photos of people in the water wearing PFD earrings. My PFD has straps, and the real beauty of them is that you no longer need to have the waist belt pulled up really tight (nor the crotch straps acually)

Oddly enough very few PFD's come with even a crotch strap much less leg straps or even a way to attach them later.

Quote:

You can submit your crotch-strangler proposal to an "Innovations in Life Jacket Design" contest: http://www.boatus.org/design/guidelines.asp for a cash reward. The trick might be how to make the extra strap intuitively obvious for folks in a panic, who might connect that to the waist buckle instead for instance.

Simple solution - different sized and colored buckles for the crotch/leg straps than the waist ones

If you wear a properly sized water ski/wake board vest with 3-4 cross-chest straps, you are not going to slip out of it nor will it ride too high on you while your in the water.

I agree, a proper fitting and properly worn life vest/ski vest will not allow the person wearing it to slip out. The chest straps should be snug, and the vest overall should fit like a glove. No way would I ever prefer a crotch strap! It would be far too uncomfortable, make it that much more difficult to get into and out of, could potentially get tangled up with a harness and/or snagged on things as you're crawling around a trampoline.

Buckaroo wrote:

It appears that a type iv is not required, see below from the USCG website. But I think it's a good idea to have one handy anyway.

1.Q: What life jackets are required to be carried on my recreational boat?

A: In general, Federal law requires that you must have a Coast Guard-approved wearable, life jacket (Type I, II, or III) for each person onboard your vessel. In addition, boats greater than 16 feet in length must carry a Coast Guard-approved throwable device (Type IV). A throwable device is not required on canoes or kayaks regardless of length. For more information on exemptions and the proper use of life jackets, see A Boater’s Guide to the Federal Requirements for Recreational Boats.

That was exactly the requirement I was referring to. The H18 is greater than 16 feet in length and therefore technically must carry a USCG approved type IV throwable device. The coast guard usually will also tell you that it should be readily accessible in case of emergency (they'll ticket you for it on a power boat if they're tucked away somewhere that is difficult to get to). The problem is, your only options are underneath the trampoline or on top, where it'll take up a lot of space and have to be well secured - probably not all that accessible. I usually don't bother with one, I was just curious if anyone else does.